The root of all evil, John Chow has launched his latest money making scheme, asking people who want NoFollow removed from their comments on his blog to stump up $10 a month for the privilege.
This to me, seems to be a bit of a perversion of the DoFollow movement that I was introduced to by Andy Beard, whereby your commentators are rewarded for taking the time to make a comment, by giving them the little bit of link juice available to their URL in the comment box. John has turned this around some, by leaving NoFollow switched on for all comments, unless you pay the monthly subscription, in which case you get the NoFollow switched off.
Leaving aside the ethics with which I am slightly uneasy (it is his blog, and his rules after all), is it really worth the money? Is it worth $10 a month to have a link with no relevant anchor text, and that is buried in the comments pages (which means its PR value will be about zero)? John has based the pricing on the cost of a post level Text Link ad on his site, but at least that is at the foot of a post, and can have anchor text of the advertisers choosing.
Personally, there isn’t a blog on the planet that I would pay to have a followable comment link on, nor would I ever charge for one. Followable comment links are a nice thing to give away, but I just don’t feel there is any benefit at all to buying one. Well, apart from to Johns bank balance of course.
Would you charge for your readers to have DoFollow enabled links? Would you pay the $10 a month subscription?
53 users commented in " Paying For DoFollow: Would You? "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackIt’ll probably work to some extent (for him) but it’s crass and offensive. I’m amazed that the majority of the comments left on the post are positive.
Not mine though.
http://thepaperbull.com/crossing-the-ethics-line-with-a-monetized-blog/
Good point, Chris. I think the reason lot of the comments being positive is probably because many people simply aren’t aware of what it means. He will make his money because there are always people who’s gonna think ‘If John Chow is selling it, it must be good to my blog’ and buy it.
As for ethics, I don’t even want to get into it. I have turned this on after your recommendation for anyone who would like to comment as a bonus.
I guess if he wants to charge whatever he can – just doesn’t seem right though.
I find it hard to believe anyone would pay $10 per month for it.
Some people will pay, like K-in-the-house has said, just because it is John Chow (never been to his site) but I am betting that others will jump on the bandwagon, do the same and think they can make a million. All will fail, it just isn’t worth $10/month – would that bring in traffic to be able to pay for itself?
– GoldCoaster.
John is getting really commercial for me… i rarely visit his blog anymore. hes making bank so what does my opinion matter?
but… thats a little extreme.. 10$ a month for that?
I would however like to use the plugin. It would be a great way to reward your top commentors without the top commetors list, etc. Then you can pick which blogs you want to link to.
@Matthew — finally one postive thing about that plugin. Never thought of that.
@goldcoaster — I am with you on your feeling that other bloggers will use this plugin for just that purpose.
It appears that I with the majority here on this subject. Regardless of that, you have to give Chow some credit for his deviousness.
If look at this in a different light, he is not really selling links — people are going to be paying him to comment. After all, they will want to post and post often to get those links in.
@paperbull — my thoughts were a little more extreme
I think it’ll devalue his site a great deal.
Any community that once thrived will turn to spam and advertising.
Thats a good point there mathew, he has not found a balance between commercialization and good readership experience…as I said in my blog,…. backlink whores bringing in comments like “Hmm” “Nice one” “I love this blog!” and others of the kind. …I never read the comments section after reading a post. I never comment since I am sure not to get anything worthwhile doing it.
and by the way, goldcoaster, he said he got 5 orders after 12 hours of publishing that post…people will diving into anything for links…
Why would I give greedy John Chow any of my money? Does he really need this or is he just monopolizing his site agian.
I sure wouldn’t pay for a dofollow tag. Certainly not $10/month
Question though, does do follow mean that the other links in the post are active as well? Could I post a bunch of deep-links to my own site with relevant anchor text? That would be a bit spammy, but that seems to be what he is inviting.
Either way, I wouldn’t pay for it and I wouldn’t do it. It will be interesting to see if he keeps it up or stops after a period of time
@Scott — there were no specifics in the post about links in the body of the comment. Maybe somewhere he mentioned in between all the spammy comments. Every time I go there to read them, my page freezes up.
Even if your name is the only allowed link, I will bet there will be a lot of people named “On!ine Casino” “Cheap V!agra” and “Feremones for the Real Man”.
The fact that John Chow didn’t turn on dofollow after finding out about it speaks volumes. He really is a link whore.
It does seem like he’s gone a step too far here.
It’s a shame, I really enjoyed his blog a couple of months ago, but it is going downhill fast. Commenting isn’t worth getting into, and the posts are getting ever more scammy. Oh well…
Webstractions, check out the Top Commentators list, it’s halfway there already!
@Chris – I know, hence my comment. I was being a little overly facitious about it though. Sometimes my humor even escapes me!
You do have to give the man some credit though. His readership has gone up; closing in on 5100 per the Feedburner gauge. I faintly remember it being around 4800 not too long ago.
I think Brendan F. Behan said it best, “All publicity is good, except an obituary notice.”
I’ve been a subscriber of John’s feed for a few months now and have noticed that it has gradually devolved into an ego-fest. This latest “evil” scheme smacks of pure greed and it certainly has lowered his blog yet another notch in my book.
[...] reading the news about it at Blog-Op and then reading the source article myself at John Chow dot Com, I’ve decided that [...]
I wouldn’t entertain it. He’s really plumbing the depths now.
Obviously, John Chow has gone over to the dark side.
[...] makes some of his readers, those who don’t subscribe, into somewhat second class citizens. Blog-Op has a similar post to this, and the commenting consensus there is they would never charge for Do [...]
I’ve been struggling here trying to figure out a flip rejoinder… this is the best I could do so far….
Attention readers! You don’t have to pay John Chow’s $10 monthly fee to leave comments. You can comment on my blog for only $7.98 per month — no limit on comments — or, for the economy minded, or those who are more inclined to lurk, I’ll charge you an a la carte price of $1.25 per comment or per 6 lurking-only visits.
To pay, simply open the disk drive drawer (you may be using it as a drink holder, but it slides in and out, too!) and insert your money, just as at the laundromat….
Say… you don’t think anyone might fall for this, do you?
I like it Curmudgeon, it might just work
“I think Brendan F. Behan said it best, “All publicity is good, except an obituary notice.””
I think Mr Chow could probably even make money out of that…..
I like your strategy, Curmudgeon, but the “Chow” in me makes me want to trump that offer, so here goes…
“Now, and for an unlimited time, you can post not one, not two, but as many comments on 2Dolphins as you’d like for a low, low, price of… (wait for it) absolutely nothing! But don’t delay, prime commenting spots are open now.”
Jeez, now I feel so, um, opportunistic. I’ve gotta go take a shower…
Would you charge for your readers to have DoFollow enabled links? -no, if you want to make money … you could have just sell links on your site
Would you pay the $10 a month subscription? no, I wouldn’t
I think no one would do such a thing .
Chris — should I sign you up then?
Rob O. — Free comments? But you’ll charge a ‘handling fee’ for posting… right?
Hi Chris. Here is a comment that John left in response to someone’s questions:
“Links left in the comment will continue to be dofollow if the user unsubscribe. However, the link on the username will revert back to nofollow due to the way WordPress manages this.”
Of course, there could be changes made to this by WP. I wonder, however, with it this way, how long it will last.
I wouldn’t pay for comments nor would I have someone pay as John is doing.
Go on then Curmudgeon, my Visa number is encoded in this page, find it and it’s yours….
Cheers Diana – he’s still not getting my cash
[...] thinks this is a bit of a perversion of the Dofollow movement and goes on to say:- Personally, there isn’t a blog on the planet that I would pay to have a [...]
[...] paperbull.com Blog-op Untwisted Vortex Websubtractions Andy Beard John Chow. Share and Enjoy: These icons link to [...]
No and No. JC is free to do as he pleases of course, just as his readers are free to pay up or not pay up.
I don’t think it would ever occur to me, but that’s possibly why I’m not an internet millionaire.
It that guy was here, I’d vote him off the island. What? I can’t? Damn!
He’s a millionaire, what’s wrong with these people???
I would never pay to get a little link love from comments. That completely goes against everything the blogosphere is about to me. Isn’t this guy ever going to learn?
I guess he’s rich enough not to care? Shame though.
John Chow is a business minded people, he just keep on thinking new things he can do to his blog to make more money online.
Indeed, he found 11 people stupid enough to pay….
I am surprised he found 11 people stupid enough to do it! That is shocking to me to say the least. How did that happen? It goes to show you can sell anything these days.
He has some readers that would jump off a building if he told them to….
First, one must admit that it’s a good bit of link bait (think about how many nofollowed backlinks he’s received for pulling this stunt — the link in your own entry isn’t nofollowed). However, it leaves a horrid aftertaste in my mouth.
To answer your question, would I ever charge my commenters for a nofollowed link? Sure, when they start serving frosty cold Frappuccinos in hell. (In other words, no. I appreciate my commenters for adding to the discussions and feel they deserve a bit of link love for it.)
~ Teli
Hi Teli, thanks for your comment.
I did debate whether to nofollow the link, but I decided not to be petty about it.
The Iced frappuchino sounds quite nice actually, but I’m with you on the charging thing
@cade – 11 out of the (now) 5787 readers he has is not too bad. That translates to about .2% of them being really stupid. The other 99.8% are either normally stupid, or like me, just want to keep an eye on him.
@Teli – I usually have to go to the eye-wash station down the street at the factory after only scanning his post headlines. And make mine a Double Mocha, skim milk and a splash of Bailey’s please. Heck, throw in a shot of Scotch for flavor too.
@Chris – I do the same thing, dofollow. It is not worth quibbling over. You have to figure that the person who does click on your post link is going in armed with a little bit of knowledge that you supplied to him/her.
You are what you link.
Did you know that out of the top 100 results at Google for the search of John Chow, less than a handful are dissenting posts and only one is for another John Chow (the actor). I was blessed to be in the top 20, but this all pales in comparison to #21.
There is a nofollow plugin for John now, but I have a few suggestions I would like incorporated before writing about it.
Nice suggestions, or rude ones?
WebS: The numbers have changed (I think you’re 17th now) What was 21?
Probably 17 in the UK, still 20 in the US. Good to see that you UK-anese are hip to the situation more than us.
Why bother???
We try
Crapola, forgot the #21 that you asked about.
Twisted Vortex’s post about Kicking John Chow to the Curb.
[...] eventually going to leave your site anyway. There’s a good posting was about a paying for a DoFollow, so good that it had comments about this issue being crass. I learned a new word today – [...]
it’s just common sense to John Chow, people who are serious to get some link juice will bite that since it’s a good offer.
Anyway, like what John says, if you’re not helping him make money, why would he care on your opinion?
Why don’t people just come and comment on my blog then if they are looking for link love – I have completely removed “NoFollow” from my blog. But yes, you will need to comment atleast twice to be eligible for DoFollow juice.
[...] paperbull.com Blog-op Untwisted Vortex WebStractions Andy [...]
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